Share this Story

More Than 50,000 Riders Expected for 18th Annual Trail of Tears Motorcycle Ride

ICTMN Staff

9/17/11

Starting on September 17 the "largest organized motorcycle ride in history" according to WDXE.comwill begin in Chattanooga, Tennessee. More than 50,000 motorcyclists are expected to participate in this fund raiser for Native American scholarships.

According to the official site for the ride, TrailOfTears-Remembrance.org, there are scholarships made available each year dependent upon the proceeds of the Trail of Tears Remembrance and Motorcycle Ride. "Trail of Tears Remembrance Association, Inc. is awarding scholarships to students of Native American descent, from tribes originating in the Southeast. The students awarded these scholarships shall have demonstrated successful academic performance and financial need," the website states.

The ride follows Highway 41/72 from Chattanooga around Lookout Mountain. It cuts through Jasper and then follows Highway 41 to Monteagle, Tennessee, one of those most scenic and historic routes in the state. The ride ends up in Florence, Alabama.

"This ride is not about which trail we ride, or the remembrance of one particular group of people that traveled the Trail of Tears," TrailOfTears-Remembrance.org states. "It is about the remembrance of the plight of the Native American people ripped from their homes, their lands and forced to endure the terrible hardship placed upon them when forced to a new land, forced to a land full of uncertainty, unknowing, and a feeling that their aggressors may again change their mind and force another removal, or worse annihilation."